Servicing

Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings is looking for evidence of potential improprieties at a controversial New York law firm that represents banks in foreclosure cases.

A large and aging pool of nonperforming mortgages continues to hang over the housing market despite loan modifications that have kept the serious delinquency rate from ballooning. However, the pace of loan restructurings has slowed by nearly 40% since last year and there are new fears that loans that have already been modified may default.

A decision to restore the $729,750 maximum loan limit on government-backed loans likely will be made by House and Senate leaders -- and not the appropriators, according to industry sources following the issue.

Residential servicers completed nearly 40,150 HAMP modifications in September, a 60% improvement from August, according to figures released by the U.S. Treasury Department.

The U.S. mortgage insurance business at Genworth Financial Inc., Richmond, Va., nearly halved its year-over-year loss in the third quarter as new flow delinquencies declined 14% from the previous year and new insurance written was up by 13% in the same timeframe.

American International Group, New York, reported a net loss of $4.1 million, which includes a $931 million decline in the fair market value of AIG's holdings in Maiden Lane III and a $43 million decline in the fair market value of its subsidiary SunAmerica's holdings in Maiden Lane II.

U.S. District Court for the Central District of California Thursday dismissed a civil claim filed against Lender Processing Services by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which accused the mortgage vendor of gross negligence in appraisals conducted for the now defunct Washington Mutual, Seattle.

Selene Finance, a specialty servicer/loan modification company controlled by Lewis Ranieri, has hired Larry Litton Jr., and a handful of top managers from Litton Loan Servicing, Houston, according to servicing executives that have done business with the firm.

Redwood Trust, the only firm to publicly issue jumbo MBS the past two years, earned just $1 million in the third quarter, but its acquisition of nonconforming product in the secondary market jumped by 166%.

A proposal from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network would require Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to develop their own anti-money laundering programs as part of an ongoing effort to combat mortgage fraud.